“It is of our national interest that I visit first the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nandito yung karamihan ng ating — kayo — ating mga kababayan [A lot of our countrymen — you people — are here]," Duterte told the Filipino audience.

"You are not just citizens of the Republic of the Philippines, you are the assets,” he added

After delivering a lengthy speech, Duterte opened the floor to questions from the audience.

One asked for an update on plans to come up with department solely for overseas Filipino workers’ concerns. Another requested for a Philippine consulate in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia to alleviate the problem of traveling to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, which was more than 800 kilometers away.

“We’ll give it to them. Bigyan ninyo ako ng tatlong buwan [Give me three months], and you will have it,” the President said.

Filipinos were delighted with some even taking the opportunity to nominate ambassadors.

A video published on the official Presidential Communications Facebook page showed Duterte receiving a warm welcome from Filipinos there. He obliged the crowd by singing a duet with a fellow Filipino to the song “Ikaw.”

Saudi Arabia is a top destination for overseas Filipino workers and home to more than a million of them. A 2016 report by the Philippine Statistics Agency placed the number of Filipinos working there between April to September 2015 at 2.4 million.

Earlier, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who is part of the President’s delegation said his counterpart in the Saudi government agreed to negotiate new rules to improve working conditions for Filipino workers.

“We are meeting with the Minister of Labor regarding the bilateral agreements that we signed,” Bello said in a statement. “These agreements refer to the labor standards that provided our OFWs with rules on better wages, protection from maltreatment, working hours and other labor issues,” he added.